The Highest Grossing Horror Movies At The Box Office

The following table shows the 40 highest grossing movies at the box office (adjusted for inflation). Due to the difficulty of obtaining international box office data for older movies, this table refers to domestic (USA & Canada) box office only.

Movie

Year

Domestic Box Office
(nominal)

Domestic Box Office
(adjusted)

Jaws

1975

$260 M

$1098.9 M

The Exorcist

1973

$193 M

$885.5 M

The Sixth Sense

1999

$293.5 M

$494 M

Young Frankenstein

1974

$86.3 M

$391.7 M

Gremlins

1984

$148.2 M

$378.4 M

Psycho

1960

$32 M

$366.1 M

Signs

2002

$228 M

$336.6 M

It

2017

$330M (proj.)

$330 M (proj.)

I Am Legend

2007

$256.4 M

$315.1 M

The Mummy Returns

2001

$202 M

$306.2 M

The Amityville Horror

1979

$86.4 M

$295.5 M

Jaws 2

1978

$77.7 M

$285 M

Alien

1979

$78.9 M

$269.9 M

The Silence of the Lambs

1991

$130.7 M

$266.5 M

The Mummy

1999

$155.4 M

$262.4 M

Hannibal

2001

$165.1 M

$250.3 M

Scary Movie

2000

$157 M

$249.9 M

What Lies Beneath

2000

$155.5 M

$247.5 M

The Omen

1976

$60.9 M

$245.4 M

The Blair Witch Project

1999

$140.5 M

$237.4 M

Poltergeist

1982

$76.6 M

$223.6 M

Interview With the Vampire:
The Vampire Chronicles

1994

$105.3 M

$215.6 M

World War Z

2013

$202.4 M

$214.8 M

King Kong

1976

$52.6 M

$211.9 M

Aliens

1986

$85.2 M

$196.9 M

Scream

1996

$103 M

$193.5 M

The Ring

2002

$129.1 M

$190.5 M

Scream 2

1997

$101.3 M

$187.9 M

Get Out

2017

$175.5 M

$175.5 M

Halloween

1978

$47 M

$172.3 M

Bram Stoker's Dracula

1992

$82.5 M

$170.6 M

Sleepy Hollow

1999

$101.1 M

$169.8 M

Van Helsing

2004

$120.2 M

$166 M

Scary Movie 3

2003

$110 M

$156.5 M

The Conjuring

2013

$137.4 M

$156.5 M

The Haunting

1999

$91.4 M

$154.4 M

The Grudge

2004

$110.4 M

$152.5 M

The Others

2001

$96.5 M

$152.3 M

Scream 3

2000

$89.1 M

$147.7 M

The Shining

1980

$44.0 M

$146.1 M

Jaws and The Exorcist have remained the top grossing movies (adjusted for inflation) for over 40 years and it is highly unlikely they will ever be bumped off the top two spots given their domestic take is almost double that of the next highest grossing movie on the list.

Some interesting things to note:

It became an unexpected box office smash in 2017, storming past the The Sixth Sense to become the highest grossing horror movie unadjusted for inflation, grossing $330 million domestically and almost $700 million worldwide.

M. Night Shyamalan, Ridley Scott, Stephen Sommers, and Wes Craven are the only directors with multiple movies in the horror top 40.

Seven sequels / franchise continuations make it into the list: The Mummy Returns, Hannibal, Jaws 2, Scream 2, Scream 3, Aliens, and Scary Movie 3. A further five movies are remakes: King Kong, The Haunting, The Mummy, The Grudge, and The Ring.

1999-2002 was a golden period for horror movies with 13 of the 40 highest grossing films released in this period.

Only four movies made from 2008 onwards make the list (It, Get Out, The Conjuring, and World War Z).

The Blair Witch Project is the least expensive horror movie on the list with a budget of just $60,000. The most expensive movie on the list is World War Z with a production budget of $190 million.

Jaws and The Exorcist are the only two movies that finished as the highest grossing film of their respective years.

Jaws (#7) and The Exorcist (#9) are the only horror movies in the top 50 highest grossing movies of all time (inflation adjusted). The Sixth Sense is the next highest at #66.